Lonely Talks
by Aisling Moon
Summary: How do you help someone, when you can't even help yourself? Talk. Hurt Ichigo. Set during slightly AU quincy arc.


**AN: Okay, I promised Danizinhachan a oneshot ages ago and then school and I was sick and ahhhhhh... Basically it never got done and I'm sooo sorry. I hope this makes up for it.**

**Also, thanks to all of you who read my previous stories and I just wanted o put out a warning for all future people.**

**I read each and every review, but sometimes I lose track of the ones I answered and the ones I didn't, so if I didn't reply, I'm sorry and I love you for reviewing. And being you. I'm rambling. Just read the story.**

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><p>Screams of the wounded filled the air as Shinji ran, dodging debris and stray attacks. A arrow went through his sleeve and he cursed before stabbing the Quincy that attacked him. The man fell to the ground coughing up blood and Shinji didn't even think twice about him.<p>

C'mon, c'mon, where is he? Shinji thought as he dashed towards the outskirts of the fighting, away from most of the dueling shinigami and towards the billowing smoke clouds.

As he got closer, Shinji heard the shrieking sound of metal on metal, and several small explosions. Jumping through the thick smoke, Shinji saw flashes of black and orange, highlighted by blue streaks of light.

Shinji dashed into the fray and started attacking the Quincies. Several went down without a hitch, but the others soon caught on that they shouldn't approach him. It gave him a chance to talk to his fighting partner.

"Ichi, if you wanted my help all you had to do was ask." Shinji grinned as he walked towards Ichigo, sword loosely dangling from his hand.

Ichigo wiped blood out of his eyes from a nasty cut in his forehead and retorted, "First of all, I didn't need your help, and second, I know that. Why do you think I didn't ask?"

Shinji's grin fell off his face to be replaced by a frown. "Well, that's no way to treat a friend coming to your rescue."

"Once again, I. Didn't. Ask."

"Asking for help isn't a sin ya know, Ichigo." Ichigo just turned and faced the incoming shots from the quincies. Shinji cast him one more annoyed glance before turning to do the same.

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><p>Within a few minutes, they had defeated twenty some-odd foot soldier quincies and apparently the rest had either been defeated as well, or retreated for the time being.<p>

The only other reason for the shinigami's screams to stop was that all of them had been slaughtered, and Shinji didn't feel like being depressed quite yet.

Ichigo paused again to wipe blood out of his face, smearing it all over his cheek and into part of his hair, making it a darker orange. Shinji glanced at him, noticing that Ichigo was almost bent over slightly, and his hand kept drifting towards his stomach.

"Are you alright?" Ichigo jumped and then quickly covered by nodding. Shinji didn't really believe him and was about to say so when Ichigo changed the topic.

"So why are you out here anyway? It's kind of weird that you came all the way to the edge of the fighting, instead of bashing heads in the middle of the action?"

"I was looking for you. Rukia told me to try and find you. She and a few others are seriously worried about you. You've been fighting since yesterday morning. No one can last a day and a half without stopping."

Ichigo averted his eyes and muttered something about "fine". Instead of listening to Shinji, he walked over to one of the quincies corpses. He was about to say something when he spotted something shiny sticking out of the dead quincy's uniform.

Ichigo bent down and picked it up, turning it over in his hands. Shinji came closer to look at it as well. It appeared to be a small knife, clean and sharp, and strangely out of place.

None of the quincies used knives or swords, so why on earth would this one be carrying a dagger? Just as Shinji noticed that there was something engraved on the pommel, one of the dead quincies hopped up, grabbed the knife and ran into the woods.

Both shinigami stared after the quincy for a few seconds before following after him.

"I thought he was dead!" Ichigo shouted as they shunpoed after the guy.

"So did I. Guess he was just playing possum." Shinji replied. The woods opened up into a small clearing, cut into a half moon shape by a sheer cliff. The quincy was standing at the edge, breathing heavily and looking down at it in dismay.

The cliff opened into a ravine, and the other side was so far away, the trees there looked blurry from this distance. He would never make it.

"Why don't you just tell us what that is, give it to us, and maybe I'll let you live." Shinji casually offered the quincy, this just seemed to harder his resolve and he formed his bow out of nowhere.

"This belongs to my king. Now die." And with that he started shooting at them.

No hesitation whatsoever in Ichigo as he charged the quincy, sword parrying arrow after arrow. They were deflected to the side and destroyed trees and sections of cliff. Shinji rolled his eyes and joined in the fight.

The quincy was clearly losing, and he was close to being defeated. He knew that so for a moment he lowered his weapon. Ichigo took the opportunity and charged.

The first arrow pierced his leg, the second, his chest. A third one hit the ground where both Ichigo and Shinji had been standing. The cliff crumbled beneath them but before he fell, Shinji fired a kido at the quincy and killed him, this time for sure. Anyone can fake a fatal wound to the stomach.

No one can fake a hole in their head.

As they were falling, Shinji desperately looked around for Ichigo. He had seen the first arrow go through his leg and saw the second one headed for him. Shinji caught sight of Ichigo, falling unconscious through the rock debris, Just as he felt himself hit something very hard and the world vanished.

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><p>Hangovers after drinking all night with Rangiku and Shunsui (man, can they drink) were preferable to the headache Shinji had right now.<p>

Groaning, Shinji closed his eyes tightly, trying to make the pain go away. It didn't really work, but it did clear his head enough to know there was something he should be doing. What was it again?

Blinking slowly, Shinji opened his eyes to almost complete darkness. If not for the stars shimmering faintly above, Shinji might have thought he'd gone blind.

Bits and pieces of thought were returning to Shinji, first in the form of images and sounds instead of words.

A flash of orange and blue was intermingled with sounds of death and crumbling stone. Red was thrown into the mix and when the startled gasp of a teenager finally drifted into his head, Shinji bolted upright.

Casting his gaze around the area he was in, Shinji realized three things simultaneously.

One, he had fallen into the bottom of the ravine with a lot of rocks.

Two, his head was very fuzzy right now and it was hard to think. Or maybe that was because he fell into a ravine head first. Or because he broke his ankle. Whatever.

Three, Ichigo's unconscious body was lying on his stomach against the cliff wall a few feet from him, covered in blood and bruised.

Shinji dragged himself to Ichigo's side, pulling with his arms because his ankle was busted (feet aren't supposed to face that way...) and it took him a few minute to actually reach Ichigo.

Ichigo was out cold, not responding to shaking aside from a faint moan. Cursing loudly to himself, the air, whatever was listening, he dragged himself against the wall into a sitting postion beside Ichigo.

Wherever Ichigo wasn't bloody or bruised, he had serious cuts, probably from the fall down here. Shinji noticed the arrow was still in Ichigo's leg and was about to remove it when he noticed the other arrow.

Sticking out of Ichigo's chest.

Shinji just started at the arrow for a moment before jolting himself back into action.

First he had to break the shaft off of the arrow in Ichigo's calf so he could push it through. If he acted fast enough, he could heal Ichigo before he bled out. Shinji half-pulled Ichigo across his legs, enough so he could reach Ichigo's calf.

As he broke the shaft off of the arrow he nervously wondered if he remembered enough healing kido to keep Ichigo alive until someone found them.

Taking a breath and holding it, Shinji pushed the arrow through the other side of Ichigo's calf. Ichigo jerked and tried to pull away. Ignoring him, Shinji just kept pushing until the arrow came out. The blue light was now stained with red and Shinji threw the arrow away in disgust.

Aplying his hands to the wound, which already had blood flowing, he pushed down to keep pressure on the wound as he started healing. The kido faltered at first, but then it started working. The muscle reknit itself, and once Shinji started getting tired, he stopped.

The arrow in Ichigo's chest proposed more of a problem. Shinji knew he had to do the same as he had done to Ichigo's leg and remove the arrow. But on the way out, or during healing, Shinji might mess something up and if it was the heart or lungs, Ichigo would die.

Shinji started to roll Ichigo over onto his back, surprised at how light he was. Shinji didn't really see him eat that much. Or sleep for that matter.

When Ichigo got to his side, he flinched and tried to roll back. Confused, Shinji tried again and the same thing happened.

Shinji took out his zanpakuto and cut away Ichigo's shirt. The blue, almost black bruises on his ribs explained why Ichigo couldn't roll over. Shinji briefly remembered Ichigo putting his hand on his ribs and realized that he must have been injured from before, when he had been fighting.

Gently, Shinji rearranged Ichigo, eventually getting him on his back without touching his ribs more than necessary.

The arrow in his chest was most of the way through which made Shinji's job easier. He broke off the tiny bit of arrow on Ichigo's back and then tightly gripped the part sticking out of Ichigo's chest.

As he started pulling, Ichigo gasped and weakly tried to push Shinji away. It had the effect of a dandelion puff hitting a steel wall. It barely even registered.

The sounds Ichigo made as he pulled out the arrow were awful to listen to. He was trying to be quiet, even if he was only semi-conscious, and the muted whimpers were so unusual coming from him.

Gritting his teeth, Shinji readjusted his grip and yanked the arrow out of Ichigo's chest in one swift pull. A strangled gurgle escaped Ichigo's lips and blood started pouring out of his chest.

Quickly Shinji restarted the healing kido and tried not to panic at the sheer amount of blood that was coming out. The amount of blood a human body needs to function isn't much, but when it's pouring out onto the ground, it's astounding how much there is.

A few tense minutes of harsh breathing and muttered curses, Shinji noticed the hole was finally closing up. With a sigh of relief, Shinji reapplied himself and within a few minutes, Ichigo's breathing was less laboured and Shinji finally took his bloodied hands off of Ichigo's chest.

Shinji tipped his head back against the wall and just relaxed for a second. They weren't out of the woods yet. Ichigo was still seriously injured and Shinji couldn't walk, and who knows if anyone will find them, but for the moment, they're alive.

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><p>Shinji's not sure when he fell asleep, but he's awoken by faint moaning. Mind still fuzzy with sleep it took a few moments to figure out what was going on. Once his mind caught up, Shinji looked down at Ichigo, curled up on the ground stained with his own blood.<p>

The moaning was coming from him, soft noises that Shinji wouldn't have noticed if he wasn't right next to Ichigo. Ichigo shivered and curled tighter in on himself. His lips moved but no words came out.

Shinji hesitated, not sure if he should wake Ichigo up. He needed the sleep.

But then again, he did have a head wound, and he needed to be woken up every so often.

So Shinji gently shook Ichigo's shoulder, jumping in surprise when Ichigo suddenly started sitting up. A hand on his chest was all it took to keep Ichigo from rising.

Ichigo swung his head around, looking for something desperately. His eyes found Shinji's and he frowned, obviously confused.

"You got shot by that quincy and we fell off of a cliff. Don't move. I said don't move." Shinji repeated his instructions as Ichigo immediately started squirming, trying to get up.

"Whur 'r 'e?" Shinji raised an eyebrow before trying to translate.

"I just told you. We fell down a cliff. So we're at the bottom."

"Oo kay?"

"Yeah I'm mostly fine. My ankle's busted or we'd be outta here, and I have a killer headache, but it's fine."

Ichigo seemed to hesitate before mumbling something else.

"What was that?"

"Urts." Shinji winced. Yeah, he knew it was gonna happen, but he was hoping the head trauma would keep Ichigo from noticing the pain. Guess not.

"Yeah, you're pretty beat up." Shinji wondered what he could do. No medical help, no painkillers, nothing. Then his eyes lit up with an idea.

"Hey Ichi, did I ever tell you 'bout the time Rose got all his hair chopped off?"

Ichigo shook his head and regretted it, as it made his headache worse.

"Well, it was hilarious. He was so mad. We were fighting a hollow..."

Shinji talked. And talked. And talked.

Hours went by and the night slowly faded to day and still Shinji talked. He talked about everything from old friends, to funny stories. Anything to take Ichigo's mind off of the fact that he was dying.

Shinji's voice was fading and turning scratchy when he finally, finally heard voices. Before he knew it, he was surrounded by other shinigami, all clamoring about, trying to bring Ichigo and himself up without hurting them further.

Much of the trip to Fourth Division was a blur, and Shinji barely noticed when he was brought into the building. He did notice Ichigo being taken to Captain Unohana though.

Shinji tracked Ichigo being wheeled away with his eyes and once he was out of sight, he finally allowed his eyes to close and let the blackness he had been fighting off for hours wash over him.

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><p><strong>AN: Well, I just wrote this story in an hour at midnight and now I have to go pass out.<strong>

**This is the prompt by the way:**

_**A one-shot in which Ichigo is critically injured and Shinji is the one to take care of him**_

**Please review!**


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